10 November 2016

Achieving Financial Transformation

It’s known as financial transformation – the changing emphasis within business to use the wealth of data gathered by ERP technology. It means Chief Executives and their boards will expect the CFO or Finance Director to dig deep into the data to tell them what’s happening across the company and, possibly, what’s around the corner.

But the truth is, the Finance Department can’t make the most of this data and deliver the answers alone. To really benefit from digital transformation, every department across your business – from finance to marketing and IT to HR – needs to work more closely together. And that starts at the top.

Most important is the collaboration between Finance and IT. In larger organisations, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is seen as responsible for extracting insight from data – so it makes sense that the CIO and CFO work together to effect the change.

But the CIO’s role is more one of maximising the technology within a business, rather than understanding the data it produces. So many organisations are looking at bringing in a Chief Data Officer (CDO) – someone who takes a strategic approach, and knows how to get the answers a business needs from the data it has. In fact, Gartner believes that 90% of large organisations will have a CDO in place by 2019.

With CFO, CIO and CDO working together, it’s easier for other business leaders around them to see new opportunities and create a clear, collective vision for the future. And with everyone able to collaborate and act quickly as one, established organisations can better compete with young companies that don’t have such rigid corporate structures.

Of course, successful financial transformation also means working closely with the right ERP provider – which is where Percipient comes in. Contact us to find out more.